Pinks and Pearls

It's February, which means it's time for lots and lots of heart-focused jewelry. To be honest, I'm not much of a fan of Valentine's Day, but I am a huge fan of freshwater pearls and working in pink. So when Artbeads.com declared January as their month of Valentine's Day for their blogger program, I headed straight for the pearl section to begin fawning over their pink pearl choices. I chose three different strands for these pink projects.

A word about pearl purchasing - I usually buy my pearls at bead shows for a few reasons. First, the bead shows offer some fabulous pearl deals. Second, I get to examine the pearls in person for the best size, shape, luster, and color quality that I can find. There is just so much variability in pearl quality out there that it's really hard to know what you're getting when you order them online.

That being said, I was very impressed with the pink pearls I received from Artbeads. The shapes are very consistent from pearl to pearl, which is a big must for my beadweaving designs. This is evident in the first necklace I made for this post:

This pendant is in my Disco Ball beaded bead design, which is also available as a tutorial in my Etsy shop. The pearls in the pendant are pink rice pearls, and have the best luster of the three strands I sampled from Artbeads. I had to increase the number of seed beads in the overlay to make the Disco Ball from these pearls, since the pearls are closer to 5 mm in length than the 4 mm called for in the tutorial.

I strung this pendant on a necklace with alternating rice pearls and fuchsia potato pearls. The dye job on these fuchsia pearls is very consistent:

I also managed to have enough of both pearls left over to make a matching bracelet:

For the next necklace, I used more of the fuchsia potato pearls and some pink large nugget pearls from Artbeads, combined with some larger magenta rice pearls from my own stash (although these pearls are a close substitute). I wove five Light Clusters beaded beads from 11° Japanese seed beads and the larger rice pearls, and strung them with the other pearls to create this necklace:

I love how the Light Clusters beaded beads look like fresh berries!

In all, I'm quite happy with how these pieces turned out and with the quality of Artbeads' freshwater pearls. They're also having a shopping spree contest at this time - follow the link in the image below to enter. Maybe you'll be the lucky winner!

Full disclosure: The pink rice pearls, pink nugget pearls, and magenta potato pearls used in these projects were received as a gift from Artbeads.com. No payment was made for the review of these products.

Balloon Box Beaded Beads

Artbeads declared December as their month of Silver & Glass for their blogger partner program, and seeing as it's now January, I'm quite tardy in posting my contribution...

For this set of projects, I decided to sample some of their "medium" 6 by 9 mm Czech glass teardrop beads for some beadweaving experiments. My prior teardrop beaded bead projects use the smaller 4 by 6 mm Czech teardrop beads, and I wanted to see if I could make a beaded bead from the larger teardrops.

I'm totally stoked about the result! These beaded beads make great solo pendants as well as neat necklace components, and they're so fun to make too! I've named this design the "Balloon Box":

I used the "German Purple" shade of Czech glass teardrops for the above beaded bead, as well as some 2 mm round sterling silver beads and Japanese seed beads. Here's one in "Medium Amethyst/Copper":

And here's one in "Medium Turquoise/Picasso":

I had so much fun with these beaded beads that I made three more of them for a necklace, combined with some Bali silver hollow swirling wire beads and additional Czech glass beads and silver beads from my own stash:

The beaded beads in the necklace are in the same German Purple shade of glass that I used in the first pendant, but I changed the colors of the Japanese seed beads to a darker hue:

And finally, I made a simple pair of matching earrings with the Bali silver beads:

I'll definitely be making more of these Balloon Box beaded beads in the future!

Full disclosure: The Czech glass teardrop beads, 2 mm round sterling silver beads, and Bali silver beads used in these projects were received as a gift from Artbeads.com. No payment was made for the review of these products.

New Octahedron Beaded Bead Necklaces

Today I added two new necklaces to my Etsy shop. Both feature three Caged Octahedron beaded beads, and are strung in a similar style. However, the colors and materials used in each necklace give both very different looks:

The dark green freshwater pearls in the first necklace served as the starting point for this piece, so I complemented them with silver, green, and dark brown seed beads to create the beaded beads. To achieve a more forest-y look, I strung the beaded beads with smoky quartz round beads surrounded by more freshwater pearls.

The second necklace features four lampwork beads by glass artisan Alex Shapiro. I found these beads at his booth at the BABE show a few years ago, and just fell in love with the dark blue color and the hint of sparkle in these beads. I made three beaded beads to match these lampwork beads, woven from Czech glass, and pink, white, and blue Japanese seed beads:

If I could make this necklace over again, I probably would have used less pink in the beaded beads because they seem a bit bright compared to the pink in the lampwork beads...

Both of these necklaces are currently available in my Etsy shop!

Artbeads Gift Certificate Winner Revealed!

Congratulations to alli for winning the Artbeads gift certificate giveaway! In the new year, alli wants to learn how to to add picot fringe to her bracelets, as well as how to make earrings from my beaded bead tutorials. Thanks alli! I'd love to see what you create with my tutorials!

Everyone has some great beading (and origami!) ideas to try in the new year!

Cindy wants to try making bead lace based on knitted lace. (Sounds neat! If anyone can work out the logistics, I'm sure you can!) If you haven't already seen her beautiful bead lace creations, check out her "Arwen" bracelet and the beautiful matching earring tutorial in her Etsy shop!

BeadKnitter wants to increase her knowledge in 3-dimensional beading with peyote stitch, right-angle-weave, and more complicated beaded beads, as well as delve into Russian beading techniques too. She's already completely mastered the Octahedral Cluster beaded bead from beAd Infinitum - check out her beautiful color variations of this design here and here! (I love the collection of Spock images too!)

BeadWhisperer wants to expand on the beading techniques that she's already familiar with; peyote, right-angle-weave, netting, and beaded beads, starting with a free-form peyote bracelet. Check out her geometric, dimensional peyote bracelet inspired by "Shaped Beadwork" by Diane Fitzgerald here! (the colors turned out great too!)

DragonTrollQueen wants to get into seedbeading this year, and is also interested in incorporating crystals into beaded beads. (It's not as hard as you think! The Squared Circles design is totally interchangeable between Czech glass and circle crystals.) She already does some gorgeous work with wire and crystals; check 'em out in her Etsy shop!

Sihui wants to learn how to make necklaces and bracelets in addition to the earrings that she already makes, as well as something in the Steampunk style. Sihui showcases some beautiful origami on her blog, and has a wide variety of very cute origami earrings in her Artfire shop! (Steampunk origami! Sounds awesome!)

The documentation of the random drawing is available at this link. Thanks to everyone who entered in the drawing, and to everyone who participated in the sale!

Full disclosure: The $25 gift certificate prize for this giveaway was kindly provided by Artbeads.com.

Giveaway and Sale - Two Days Left!

Only two days left in my tutorial sale and Artbeads gift card giveaway! All of my beaded bead tutorials are 15% off through my Etsy shop! Here's my newest tutorial:

I don't do sales very often, so this is a great opportunity to get a deal on a new design! The tutorials will reset to their normal prices at 11:59 PM PST on December 31, so don't delay!

I'm giving away a $25 gift certificate towards all kinds of beading supplies and tools, sponsored by my good friends at Artbeads.com! To enter this giveaway, leave a comment on my previous blog post by 11:59 PM PST on December 31, letting me know what kinds of beading techniques you'd like to try in the new year. Make sure to either leave your e-mail address in the comment, or make sure that that your Blogger profile includes your e-mail address. Alternatively, you can leave a link to your Etsy shop and I'll convo you to contact you. One winner will be randomly chosen and notified via e-mail on January 1, 2010. The gift certificate will be delivered via e-mail directly from Artbeads.

Good luck!

New Ideas, Giveaway, and Sale!

At the end of the year I like to try new and different beadweaving ideas. I think it's because I spend so much time on my own designs that I don't have enough time to try other projects, but since I'm usually on vacation around Christmastime, I like to use this time to take a vacation from my own beading ideas as well. Last year I made a beaded box from a project in Julia Pretl's book Little Bead Boxes, a significant departure for me since I don't work with delica beads very often. This year I received Marcia DeCoster's Beaded Opulence for Christmas, and I'm having a great time perusing this book for projects I'd like to do this holiday.

What kinds of beading techniques would you like to try in the new year? Between now and the end of the year, I'm offering two opportunities to broaden your beading horizons:

First, all the beaded bead tutorials in my Etsy shop are 15% off through December 31. New to beaded beads? Perhaps you'd like to try the delicate Light Clusters:

Or maybe you'd like to try a more advanced design? Perhaps you'd like the Teardrop Bubbles:

And then there's alway my newest design, the Squared Circles:

I don't do sales very often, so this is a great opportunity to get a deal on a new design! The tutorials will reset to their normal prices at 11:59 PM PST on December 31, so don't delay!

Second, I'm giving away a $25 gift certificate towards all kinds of beading supplies and tools, sponsored by my good friends at Artbeads.com! To enter this giveaway, leave a comment on this blog by 11:59 PM PST on December 31, letting me know what kinds of beading techniques you'd like to try in the new year. Make sure to either leave your e-mail address in the comment, or make sure that that your Blogger profile includes your e-mail address. Alternatively, you can leave a link to your Etsy shop and I'll convo you to contact you. One winner will be randomly chosen and notified via e-mail on January 1, 2010. The gift certificate will be delivered via e-mail directly from Artbeads.

I'm looking forward to hearing what everyone wants to try in the new year! Good luck!

Merry Christmas Ornament!

I make at least one Christmas ornament for my Mom every year. One year I made her an entire set of origami snowflake ornaments out of fancy textured paper, but lately I've been into making beaded ornaments. Here's this year's ornament:

This ornament features a Squared Circles beaded bead and a Circle Starburst beaded bead, both woven from medium-sized Czech glass lentils and fancy Japanese seed beads. It was hard to get a picture of it on the Christmas tree since the tree casts so many shadows, but I think this one gives an idea of how it looks in tree-context:

A tutorial for the Squared Circles beaded bead is available in my Etsy shop, and I'm currently writing a tutorial for the Circle Starburst beaded bead. I meant to get it done before Christmas, but I've found that the busy holiday season is not conducive to writing!

In the meantime, I hope you have a warm, happy holiday!

Season's Greetings!